Counterbalance
by Gold Scribbles
Summary: How does one escape The Other Side? What are the risks? Kol and Bonnie attempt to find the answers to these questions together, and things will never be the same. Kol x Bonnie
1. The Other Side

**Disclaimer:** This story is a creative exercise using characters from _The Vampire Diaries_.

**Author's Notes:** _The Vampire Diaries_ has sucked me in recently, and the Kol x Bonnie bug has bitten me hard. This is a loosely-structured story told chronologically in single-scene chapters of varying lengths.

* * *

**Part I **

**The Other Side**

xxx

Grams told her that it wasn't smart to linger amongst the living.

You fall back into old habits that way. You go to school. Lay down to sleep. Talk to friends, even if they don't talk back. You make excuses. They're mad because you forgot to call them back. You can't feel things because your hands are numb from the cold, even though the fall chill has yet to arrive.

Sometimes you get so good at making excuses that you honestly forget what happened, that it wasn't just a bad dream.

And when you reach for that hug and get no reaction, the heartbreak is enough to kill you all over again.

It's lonely here. Dwelling on the other side will do nothing but make it fester.

At least, that's what Grams had told her.

Bonnie doesn't listen. It's her fatal flaw. She knows Grams is right, that she's been right all along about so many things. If only Bonnie had listened, then she wouldn't be where she was, _what_ she was.

But she is now, and thinks, _What could possibly happen to me now that I'm dead?_

So she follows Jeremy home and watches his reunion from the sidelines.

"Jeremy?" Caroline gasps.

"Hi Caroline," he says with a sad smile.

Caroline rushes over and hugs him hard enough to bend his ribs. "Elena! Come down here now!" she calls out, voice cracking.

Footsteps gallop down the stairs. "What happened?" Elena asks, her long brown hair swinging around her tense face. She sees her brother and stops, body trembling. "Jere?"

He smiles brightly, happiness warming his cool expression at the sight of his sister. "Hey Elena."

"Oh my god. Jere!" Elena cries out, grabbing fistfuls of his clothes to bring him closer to her. "Is it really you?"

He wraps his arms around her, heavy and warm as he soothes the doubt from her mind. "I'm really back, Sis," he murmurs.

Elena lets out a high-pitched wail, shaking her head against his shoulder, as if unwilling to believe it. It wasn't real. Nothing good ever happened to her. Nothing good ever came back, at least not permanently. Her brother would be ripped away again and surely this time it would kill her.

"How? I thought Bonnie raised the Veil," Elena asks through her tears.

The question snuffs out whatever warmth he had just felt. "She did," Jeremy replies, staring at Bonnie with an anguished expression. He hugs Elena tighter. "She found a spell to bring me back."

Caroline practically bounces on her feet with joy. She turns her head to the front door, looks straight at Bonnie with her clear blue eyes, and asks, "Well, where is she?"

Bonnie closes her eyes as tears spilled down her face, devastated.

_This is what Grams warned me about._

xxx

Jeremy swallows thickly. He braces himself to tell them the lie Bonnie made him promise to say, when a movement by the staircase catches his attention.

He steps in front of his sister, muscles tensing up for a fight.

Elena shifts behind him. "What is it?"

Jeremy keeps his eyes trained on the stairs. "Kol."

xxx

Kol doesn't know what angers him more: the fact that Jeremy Gilbert was somehow alive, or the fact that Elena Gilbert was happy when she deserved nothing but misery.

"Fancy seeing you here, Mate," he greets with a smile as sharp as his fangs. "I never knew you were a Medium."

Elena zips around Jeremy with her vampire speed. "I don't see him," she says, eyes darting around the room. "He's dead Jere. It doesn't matter if he's around. He can't do anything to us now."

Kol crosses the room in the blink of an eye, towering over her with a hand wrap tightly around her neck. "How _very_ fortunate for you, dear Elena," he snarls. Despite his white-knuckled grip, Elena easily turns to face Jeremy as if nothing had touched her in the first place.

He steps back and reins in his fury. Kol knows that it can't be helped, that he should move on. If he's sentenced to this purgatory, he might as well follow his brothers back to New Orleans. But he's always been relentless when he wanted something. _Like a rabid wolf after a bone,_ his mother had affectionately said to him a millennia ago. And there's nothing he wants more now than to see this wretched doppelganger suffer for the rest of her undead life.

Kol shifts his focus to Jeremy, and notices him glancing worriedly at the front door. He looks too, but see nothing. "What are you staring at?"

When Jeremy doesn't respond, Kol walks over to the door, keeping his eyes on the boy for clues. Jeremy's face tightens with every step he takes. _Interesting_.

"Get away from her!" Jeremy shouts, unable to hide his panic.

Caroline spins around on high alert. "Is he coming near me?"

Curious. He wasn't near the girls. Carefully, Kol reaches his hand out—

"Move out of the way, Bonnie!"

—and grasps a forearm.

xxx

_Kol's here?_

Bonnie looks around, but doesn't see anyone other than her friends in the room.

"Move out of the way, Bonnie!" Jeremy shouts, breaking away from Elena in a desperate bid to get to her side.

Caroline and Elena freeze up at Jeremy's slip.

Before Bonnie can react, she feels a cool hand grab hold of her arm and tug her with enough force to upset her balance. She falls against a firm body. Lifting her head, she sees Kol, his face alight with unholy glee.

"We meet again, little witch," he breathed.


	2. Trick Me, Touch Me

**Disclaimer:** This story is a creative exercise using characters from _The Vampire Diaries_.

* * *

**Trick Me, Touch Me**

xxx

Bonnie's vision blurs. When it comes into focus again, she is pressed against a tree in the woods miles away from the Gilbert home. Kol looks at her with that cheerful grin she knew better than to trust.

"Isn't this a lovely place to have our little reunion?"

Bonnie stares him down, focusing her powers on detonating aneurysms all over his brain.

He recognizes the look on her face, and tenses up at the memory of exploding blood vessels. When nothing happens, his smile grows wider. "It seems your little magic tricks have no effect on souls."

"And all this time, I thought your kind didn't have any," she snaps, gripping her hands into fists to stop them from trembling.

"What a sharp tongue for someone so recently declawed," he remarks, fangs gleaming in the moonlight.

Bonnie sucks in an unsteady breath. "Those won't work on souls either."

"Let's test that theory."

He ducks his head and bites her. She feels the pressure of his fangs against her skin screams, heart racing in terror. The pressure intensifies as he flexes his jaw and bites down harder. Slowly, she opens her eyes when she realizes there's no pain. She relaxes, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Are you done?" She shoves at his shoulders. "You can't hurt me."

He pulls back, discontent. "This realm finds new ways to irritate me," he grumbles. "No matter though. You're not the one I want to hurt."

She narrows her eyes. "Somehow, I don't believe you."

"I don't see why not. Out of the two of us, I'm not the one that deceitfully trapped the other person underground," he hisses, his lighthearted grin morphing into a scowl.

Bonnie manages not to flinch in the face of his anger. It helps that she knows he can't harm her. "Get off of me," she says, pushing him away. The moment his fingertips leave her skin, he vanishes.

"Kol?" she calls out, spinning around. He couldn't have run away from her. He disappeared too quickly, too _completely_, without even a breeze to give away his movement or the direction he went in (not that she could even feel the breeze now). As if he were never there to begin with. She moves away from the tree, and bumps into something. Kol appears briefly, looking as bewildered as she feels, before vanishing again. Tentatively, Bonnie reaches out a hand where she last saw him and he materializes before her eyes with one arm outstretched, his palm pressing against hers.

"So that's the trick," Kol murmurs, lacing his fingers with hers in a painful grip. "You have to touch someone to see them."

Bonnie tries to break free, but his strength is absolute. She hones her power into her captive hand and pushes it out, hoping to blast him ten feet away. When nothing happens, she tries harder and harder. Still, he stands there unaffected.

"What are you doing?" he asks, noting the strain on her face.

Bonnie falls over slightly, gasping for air out of habit. "Why isn't it working?"

Kol furrows his brows before understanding dawns on his face. "Why Bonnie," he croons, wrapping his free hand around her neck and tilting her chin up. He can easily read the horror in her eyes, sees her silently begging him not to say it out loud, and it makes the words rolling off his tongue that much sweeter. "Have you gone and lost your powers coming to this side?"

Her face glows with hatred and he smiles sharply. Slowly, _effortlessly_, he lifts her off the ground by her neck. "How did you manage that? All my abilities are still intact."

"We've covered this, Kol," Bonnie says, affecting a bored tone. "Even if you still have all of your Original strength, you can't hurt me. Put me down."

"Just having a bit of fun, darling." He gently sets her down on her feet, never once breaking his hold on her hand. "And like I said earlier, you're not the one I want to hurt."

Bonnie clears her throat. She shakes her captive hand once more, but stops when his grin widens as he glances at their joined hands. She casts a suspicious glare at him. "Then who do you intend to hurt?"

He shrugs carelessly, a paradigm of boyish charm. "Tell me Bonnie, how badly do you think Jeremy and Elena Gilbert feels now that they know you're dead and with me?"

"Elena doesn't–" Bonnie stops short, suddenly remembering Jeremy shouting her name before Kol grabbed her arm and whisked her into the woods. _No._

"Please tell me it'll be bad enough for them to end their miserable lives once and for all. Perhaps they'll both stay dead this time around."

"_Shut up!_" She smacks him in the face, furious that he had the audacity to say such a thing.

"Relax, darling," he drawls, completely unaffected by her attack. "There's no need to be so rude. After all, I'm not the reason you're dead, though I do have an idea of who is responsible." She looks away, silently confirming his suspicions. "Even in death, you defend your murderers."

"They didn't do anything to me. It was my decision to cast the spell," she argues.

"Ah, I wondered how Jeremy managed to cross back. So a Bennett witch breaks the most fundamental law of Nature and pays for it with her life and powers. All for a boy."

His judgment chafes. She tilts her head up, glaring at him unflinchingly. "Go ahead and laugh. It was worth it to me, to see someone I love get the happiness he deserves. I don't expect you to understand."

"You're right," Kol says, frowning. "I've ran with witches for centuries, some of them Bennett witches like yourself, and I know that they protect the fragile balance between life and death. I don't understand how you could fundamentally go against the very nature of your being and completely upset that balance for something as trivial as love."

"And you never will if you think love is trivial."

"Here's to hoping it'll stay that way." Kol mockingly bends at the waist and drops a perfunctory kiss her hand. She tries to pull away again, to no avail. "So darling, how ever shall we pass eternity together?"

"You're crazier than everyone says you are if you honestly think I'll willingly spend another minute with you."

He shifts his index and middle finger to rest lightly on her wrist. "Are you saying that you'd rather wander this earth alone forever than stay with me?"

"_Yes._"

She doesn't have a pulse for him to read, no heartbeat to quicken and give her away. But all the same, he knows. It's in that light in his eyes, and the reflexive way her hand squeezed his for less than a second when he painted her bleak afterlife with his words.

"You're a _liar_, Bonnie Bennett."

Somehow, his accusation shreds her to pieces.


	3. Interlude: Elena

**Disclaimer:** This story is a creative exercise using characters from _The Vampire Diaries_.

**Author's Notes:** This is the first of several interludes in the story. I think it's important to have these interspersed in the main story because it gives more insight into the other side characters —how they feel and what they are doing— outside of the Kol and Bonnie dynamic. These chapters also further the plotline, and therefore do not necessarily adhere to the one-scene chapter rule.

* * *

**Interlude: Elena**

xxx

"You were going to lie to us? Give us some bogus story about how she went on vacation with her mom?" Caroline shouts, standing toe-to-toe with Jeremy.

"I didn't want to, but she made me promise," he replies heatedly.

"Oh, as if _that_ were a good reason to keep it from us!"

"What did you expect me to do, Caroline? Say no? She gave her life up for me!"

"She's my _best friend,_ and she's dead because of _you_!" Caroline shoves him away, sending him crashing against the front door.

"_Caroline!_" Elena shrieks as her brother sails through the air.

Jeremy rises with a supernatural grace, unaffected by the fall. Elena sees the tension in his shoulders, sees his eyes sharpen with a focus that puts her on alert. She's seen this before. He had the same look on his face right before he tried to drive a stake through her heart.

"Don't push me Caroline. I'm still a hunter, remember?"

Caroline widens her stance and narrows her eyes. "I can take you."

Elena rushes between them, arms outstretched to dissuade them from attacking. ""Stop it! Both of you! Jeremy, get yourself under control. This is Caroline, remember? She our friend."

He shakes his head, as if to clear it, and takes a deep breath. The tension leaves his body. Elena turns to Caroline, immediately noticing that she didn't relax her stance. Caroline crouches forward half an inch. Elena, sensing an attack, charges at her and pins Caroline against the wall.

"Don't you dare lay another finger on my brother."

Caroline glares at her, eyes hot with rage, before breaking free. She spins Elena around and slams her against the wall, one hand on her throat and the other twisting her arm behind her back at an odd angle. "Or you'll do _what_? Don't forget, I'm older than you. _Stronger_ than you." Caroline tightens her grip, and Elena winces, feeing her bones creak in protest.

"We can destroy this house trying to prove who's stronger, but this isn't going to help. We need to think clearly," Elena rasps, trying to reach through the anger enveloping her friend. "This isn't what Bonnie would've wanted, Care."

A tear drop slips down Caroline's chin, and the rage inside of her breaks, revealing an immense grief.

"She wouldn't have wanted to die either," Caroline cries as more tears slip down her face. "Oh god, Bonnie's dead."

Elena reaches up and hugs her, feeling her own sorrows crest inside her heart. "It's okay. We can fix this," she assures in a watery voice. "We'll find a way. If she can bring Jeremy back, we can bring her back too."

"How?"

"All we need is a witch strong enough to perform the spell she cast."

Caroline laughs bitterly, shaking her head against her shoulder. "I killed twelve witches, remember? There aren't a lot of them left in Mystic Falls. And even if we found one, we have no idea what kind of spell Bonnie used to bring Jeremy back from the Other Side."

"One problem at a time," Jeremy says, walking up to the girls. He places a gentle hand on Caroline's shoulder. "We need to find a witch. We'll move forward from there."

Elena nods firmly, trying to keep the panic at bay. Caroline was right. There aren't many witches left in town. They'd have to go somewhere else, but even then witches didn't exactly advertise their abilities.

"Where do we start?" she asks.

"New Orleans?" Caroline's eyes flicker down under the weight of their stares. "Klaus told me there were witches plotting his demise or something equally dramatic. That's why he left town. If we need a witch, we can find one there."

"I doubt he'll be happy to see us" Jeremy glances over at Elena. "It's unlikely Klaus forgot we killed Kol. We don't have a choice though. We need to move fast if we're going to bring Bonnie back. She's in trouble. I saw Kol drag her away."

No. They can't risk it. She can't put her brother in danger again. Elena squeezes her eyes shut, trying to think of another way. Who did they know that could find a witch? Something itches at the back of her head, a memory half-buried by time. She tries to force it to the surface, grasping at every stray thought she unearths along the way, until finally she remembers.

She remembers sneaking out to a party and deadly, spontaneous wounds. Above it all, she recalls what Bonnie had said. _There was a witch at the party who linked you two together. I got her to break the spell. It turns out she's some sort of distant cousin of mine. Small world, huh?_

Elena's eyes snap open. "We don't need to go to New Orleans. I know someone who can find one for us."

Caroline looks away, shoulders slumping fractionally.

"Who?" Jeremy asks.

"Katherine."


End file.
